


Vermin

by Lannakitty



Category: Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 21:50:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lannakitty/pseuds/Lannakitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry Dresden gets more than he bargained for when asked to assist one of Chicago's more notorious criminals with a little vermin problem. Thanks to Tichan for the quick beta! Written for Yuletide 2010</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vermin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lightgetsin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightgetsin/gifts).



I tightened the grip on my blasting rod and looked across the ruined expanse of the office. Dust from destroyed masonry drifted on the air in the space between myself and “Gentleman” Johnny Marcone. The war bellow of the angry Jenu made the smaller pieces of broken plaster bounce around. It was a sound I could feel as much as hear, the kind of noise a creature makes to scare and intimidate.

Well, I was scared and I was intimidated. But I wasn’t about to run out into the open just so tall and hairy had a better shot at making me it’s next meal. Across the way, Marcone slipped a fresh clip into his weapon, calm and collected as ever. He looked over at me as the clip slid home. I held up a hand and began counting down from five with my fingers, mouthing the words in silence. Marcone nodded, silently getting his feet under his legs, getting ready.

And the day had started out so promising, I thought.

* * *

 _Earlier_

I'd been tracking down a wayward Manitou most of yesterday and all night; from downtown to Joliet to up by Northwestern and then back again. I was beat, I had to fill The Blue Beetle's tank twice, and I was starving. Finally we’d caught up with the critter. It was pro-bono work, but I’d been able to get make it a training exercise for Molly, my apprentice. The kid had made me proud; she’d managed to convince it to leave the area - and stop snacking on prized pets. I saw her to her parents’ door, practically glowing from a job well done, and had headed out of the Carpenter’s quiet neighborhood.

After a moment of contemplation, I decided Mac's was too far. I wanted food, a shower, and my bed, in that order and now. I had a couple bucks left so I grabbed a burrito from the little Mexican place around the corner from my apartment. It was a hole in the wall and I doubted anyone in there spoke better than basic English, if that, but in the grand tradition of such eateries in big cities around the world, their food was heavenly.

The burrito had a nice warm weight to it that promised beans, cheese, guacamole and probably indigestion, but at that moment I didn't care. I disabled my wards, endured the blow to the shins from Mister as I entered, gave Mouse a scratch behind the ears, then lit the candles with a word. I pulled a coke form the ice box, thought better of it, then put it back and grabbed a glass of water from the tap.

I sat down with a napkin and a plate for my burrito because I wasn't quite at caveman-level table manners, and smiled at the silver package. This was going to be so good. I unwrapped the burrito and tore off a little bit for Mouse. The big dog caught the morsel in mid air then looked at me pleadingly for more.

"Not this time, buddy," I told him.

Mouse settled back down, head on his paws. The big eyes almost worked, but my stomach rumbled. I lifted the burrito. I could almost taste it.

Which is, of course, when the pounding started on my door. I winced and tore off a bite and chewed quickly as I headed for the door. “Don’t even think about it,” I warned Mouse, nodding at the abandoned burrito within easy nibbling distance.

My dog gave me a reproachful look and heaved himself to his feet, joining me at the door. Whatever was on the other side, Mouse didn’t seem to be concerned, merely curious. The pounding didn’t have the rhythmic sound of zombies trying to break in, I am intimately familiar with that particular cadence, but it paid to be wary anyway. I slipped the blasting rod out of the umbrella stand by the door.

“Open up Dresden!”

I frowned and held the blasting rod a bit tighter as hauled on the door. It stuck a little, thanks to the zombies. There was a Valkyrie on the other side of the door. Since I was relatively sure I was just dead-tired and not dead-dead, I figured she wasn’t here to escort me to Valhalla.

“Ms. Guard,” I greeted, nodding my head ever so slightly.

Guard returned the gesture. “Dresden.”

I opened the door a little more, inviting explanation if not inviting her inside. “Grendelkin?” I inquired politely. We’d fought one together awhile ago and I’d seen her in full Berserker mode. It had been impressive and a little frightening.

Guard’s lips quirked into a small smirk. “Not this time.”

I frowned, doubting this was a social call. “Your boss send you over?”

Guard handed over a manila folder. I took it and she held onto it for a moment. “One of our offices has an...infestation.” She let the folder go reluctant to part with it.

I took the folder and opened it, expecting to see something horrific. It was almost disappointing when the pictures were fairly mundane. There were a few lacerations and ragged cuts, but there weren’t any disfigured bodies. There was also a lot of property damage. A whole lot of property damage, in fact. Lots of busted construction equipment, cracked plaster walls and and scattered papers. It looked like a whirlwind had gone through the place. Or maybe just a pissed off Valkyrie. Some of the damage looked like Guard and Marcone’s men had done it. I flipped through the pages and found a bunch of closer images. Some of the damage looked like it had been chewed.

“Gremlins?” I questioned. Guard grimaced and I knew I’d guessed right. “What do you need me for?”

“They keep coming back and I have thus far not had any success in discovering where they’re coming from. Mr. Marcone would like to open this office to renters in the next month. Regular office equipment would be bad enough, but these are supposed to be medical offices. We can hardly call Joe’s Exterminators.”

I shrugged. That was fair enough I guessed. Hospitals and medical centers were nearly as appealing to gremlins as airplanes and airports.

“I cannot conclude this task, as I am being recalled this weekend.”

I looked up from the folder. “You’re passing the buck? Isn’t that some kind of breach in the Henching by-laws?”

“I am employed by Monoc first and Mr. Marcone second.”

“And Marcone puts up with that?”

Guard shrugged a powerful shoulder. “He agreed to my terms of employment. In any case, I wish the matter handled this weekend. Your regular fees, of course, will be paid in full, with a bonus if you finish the job with,” she paused, “minimal property damage.”

I gave her my best withering look, but she didn’t even bat an eye. Shaking my head I considered the offer. Gremlins could be like cockroaches, or rats. They lived all over the Undercity, growing fat on whatever they could catch and breeding into hordes quickly. Like termites, unless you tracked down and killed the main nest, you’d probably get them again. They were attracted to technology, like sharp-toothed, beady-eyed moths to flames. Enough of them could cause something to short out, but most equipment would have been gnawed on and ruined long before. They liked eating nuts, bolts, cords and the other vital physical infrastructures that made a modern office work.

“How bad?” I asked.

Guard handed me a second folder, this one with a building layout and location as well as, well, it looked like an internal Memo on what had already happened. It read like a battle report from a trusted lieutenant to a general, but it was a memo all the same. I eyed Guard.

“Five infestations?”

“As I said, they keep coming back.” Guard’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve killed the nest four times, but they always reappear within a day or two. I can only conclude they have a secondary position. Someone of your skill should have no problem exterminating these vermin.”

I tapped my fingers on the door. Gremlins left unchecked could cause any number of problems The building had multiple floors, which meant elevators, which meant deadly traps for innocent people; none of Marcone’s properties were entirely filled with folks in his payroll. I sighed. Murphy probably wouldn’t like it. Taking money from a known crime boss tended to get one on the bad side of the cops.

“You would be a subcontractor, working for me,” Guard said, as if reading my thoughts.

I scowled at her. That helped. The money would be good. I’d blown most of the last on a tank of gas and a burrito. “Well, since you were so nice to help me, I suppose,” I said. “Provided I can get some grub and a nap first.”

Guard appraised me for a moment then nodded. “The workmen making repairs will be gone by four,” she said, taking out a slip of paper and a keycard. “Call this number when you’re done.”

I took both items and slipped them into my pocket. “I’m only doing this because-”

Guard held up a hand, cutting me off with the gesture and accompanying impatient huff. “Save it, Wizard. Tell yourself whatever you must but get rid of the damn things.”

I gave her the scowl again, but it was still ineffective. “Four PM. Got it.”

Guard’s smile was wry. Without another word, she turned and left. I closed the door.

Huh. “Well,” I said to Mouse, “That was unexpected.” Mouse sneezed and resumed his spot on the kitchen floor. I took out the items I’d been given and stared at the number. It was a local cell number and I, perhaps belatedly, hoped there might be a pay phone to call from when I was done. Or maybe they had some old-fashioned phones in the office someplace. Doubtful, but a Wizard could hope. I slipped the keycard into the pocket of my duster and hung the coat on the hanger.

Then I applied myself to the burrito with gusto. It had cooled a bit during the conversation, but it was delicious anyway. I gave the last little bit at the end to Mouse. The dog gulped it down. “Did you even taste it?” I questioned. Mouse wagged his tail, tongue lolling in a doggie grin. I chuckled as I cleaned up the plate and glass, then headed for the shower.

“If anyone comes knocking, I’m not home,” I instructed my dog. Mouse whuffed dutifully. Taking that for a “Yes, Boss,” I hit the showers and then, hopefully, I’d hit the sack.

* * *

The Heartland Building was at the edges of a small commercial park that had once been land covered by warehouses. The building was a recent construction, and like so many it was slightly cheap and boring to look at; a bit like the cubicle farms they inevitably contained. The parking lot was empty, but there were still a number of cars in the lots of the adjoining buildings. I parked the Beetle, grabbed my blasting rod and staff, and headed for the entrance. It was as good a place as any to start my investigation.

I pulled the keycard out and pressed it against the little black box with the red light. The light, didn’t turn green and the door didn’t unlock. Of course. I sighed and tried pressing the badge to the plate again. The electronics in the plate gave a small crack and the red light died. I pulled out the number and looked for a pay phone. While I wasn’t done, I needed to speak to someone to get into the building, and possibly have them call off whatever security agency I might have just inadvertently summoned.

There was a pay phone at the gas station just down the road. I punched in the number, wincing away from the spake of static as the call connected.

“Dresden.”

“Uh.”

“Done faster than I expected, Dresden,” John Marcone drawled.

“Yeah, about that,” I finally answered, “I think I might have tripped your security system. The key Guard gave me didn’t work.” It had probably been too close to me for too long. I’d hoped the relatively short ride in the car wouldn’t have messed it up, but apparently it had been enough.

There was a silence on the other end of the line. “Very well. Be at the office in an hour. Someone will be there to let you inside.”

“Thanks.” I said. The crime lord hung up the phone.

I sauntered back over to the Beetle and returned to the office building. Since I had an hour to kill, I decided to walk the perimeter of the building. External construction was obviously complete, but many of the windows still had stickers on them. They hadn’t yet landscaped the exterior.

I hadn’t expected Marcone of all people to answer the phone. I wondered at that. I’d thought he’d finally realized that I wouldn’t be part of his personal retinue. Maybe old habits died hard. I peered inside the windows of the building. The ceilings weren’t in yet, there was a lot of exposed duct work and unpainted plaster. The damage could have come from any one of these rooms and likely had been cleaned up.

What game was Marcone playing at this time? I continued my patrol around the building, looking for signs of, well, anything that might help, but I admit I was a bit preoccupied. There was something going on here that Marcone wasn’t quite telling me.

The construction equipment had been stowed for the night and I didn’t see any gremlins out and about, but it was early yet. My patrol hadn’t turned anything up, so I returned to the Blue Beetle and waited.

Night fell on the city and the parking lots around me began to empty out. An hour later, give or take, a sleek black limo pulled up; not the stretch kind, but the smaller, sedan style that many businessmen used. I got out of my car, staff in hand and headed for the entrance. I’d expected one of Marcone’s people, or maybe one of his secretaries to handle the errand, but the man himself stepped out of the limo, straightening his well tailored jacket.

“Mr. Dresden.” Marcone eyed him casually as he fixed his cufflinks. Who wore cufflinks these days?

“Marcone,” I nodded.

“I expect,” Marcone said as he opened the building with a mechanical key, “that you will keep this to yourself?”

“Fine by me.” I didn’t really want Murphy to know I was willing subcontracting to Marcone.

He opened the door and gestured for me to head inside. I gave him a look then went. If he really wanted to set me up, well, this wasn’t really his style. The office building’s atrium was fairly nice as these things went. The whole place smelled like plaster and sawdust, smells I associated more with Michael Carpenter than Johnny Marcone. The space opened through all four stories and the flooring hadn’t been put in yet, but there was obviously a place for some minimal landscaping.

“We’re opening these as medical offices, mainly,” Marcone said, following me inside. “Extension of the medical park. Which is why we’d like to see this problem taken care of.”

I nodded. “Guard told me as much. I’ll see if I can’t find out where they’re coming in from.”

Marcone held out the key he’d used. “Any ideas?”

“A few,” I said. “Where did they,” I gestured vaguely around the building.

Marcone gestured. “This way. We’d just finished some of the lower offices to use as models to sell the rest.” I followed Marcone through a short hall and through a set of security doors.

This office space, unlike the others I’d peeked in on, was completed. There was carpet on the floors, cubicles had been set up, and the drop ceilings had been installed. I could see where Guard and whatever henchmen she’d had with her had taken the place apart. There was fresh paint on the walls and some of the cubicles were conspicuously absent, right where the carpet had recently been replaced.

“I saw the pictures,” I said casually as I began a closer inspection of the room. I wondered how long Marcone was going to stick around. Probably not long. I extended my senses, looking for traces of the gremlin infestation. I found a bit of something that was cold and clean, like the first brush of winter wind. Under that was a fuzzy, wild magic. If I had to make a guess, Guard had unleashed one of the little runes she kept, on the Gremlins.

I looked back at Marcone and caught the man’s eyes. They were green, the color of money. We’d taken the measure of one another, Marcone and I, several years before. He wasn’t exactly a good man, but I’d met men more evil. This was just business to him.

“So,” I said, conversationally, but the rest of my words were cut off by a strange sound which seemed to come from under our feet, and by the loud crack. The flooring shifted and I staggered a pace. There was a crashing sound and the floor sagged under our feet. Marcone and I looked at one another in then the floor shuddered and the cheap office carpet ripped apart beneath us.

We landed in a pile of something soft that smelled a bit like rotting vegetation, mixed with hard chunks of concrete. I ended up cracking my skull on something hard, probably some falling masonry, and seeing stars. I groaned and tried sitting up. When that didn’t work, I rolled on my side, looking around. The cavern we were in was partially constructed by heavy, old stones. Part of the cavern looked like it had been scraped out of the surrounding earth.

“Marcone?”

“Dresden.”

“You alive?”

Marcone’s chuckle sounded pained. “Yes.”

I rolled to my knees and my hands sank into the trash and found...dirt? I looked up and saw the hole we’d fallen though perhaps twenty-five or thirty feet above us. It had been a damn lucky fall. Around us was the wreckage of the unfortunate cubicles that had fallen when the floor gave way. There was a suspicious amount of concrete on the ground around us.

“Where are we?”

“Undercity,” I said. “I think.”

“Is that something as obvious as it sounds?”

“Yes and no,” I said, holding up my pentacle. “It’s a little more creepy than your typical buried cityscape.”

“Ah.”

I pushed my will into my pentacle and it glowed with silvery light. “Damn.”

Marcone looked up then around at the beady eyes that surrounded us. “Damn,” he agreed.

“Well, the good news is I found the secondary nest.” I looked over at him. “How’d your people miss this one, John?”

“This wasn’t here before,” Marcone said. He’d pulled a gun from somewhere and held it down and ready.

The gremlins weren’t anything like the public thought they looked like. They were small and they were fuzzy, covered in pitch black fur. They had bald, vulture-like faces, rat-like tails, and large bat-like ears. They hopped a bit like gerbils and had tiny claws at the ends of dexterous fingers that could cause a great deal of damage. A mild annoyance prior to the industrial revolution, they’d had a population boom within the last century. There had to be a hundred or so in the cave. But why here?

I got to my feet, pushing my will into the pentacle further. Gremlins weren’t fond of light, though it didn’t stop them completely. A circle of brightness expanded around us and the chittering gremlins scuttled out of the way, large eyes blinking.

“We need to get out of here.”

Marcone made a small noise. “Obviously. Can you fly, Wizard?”

“That’d be convenient,” I agreed, “but no.”

“Then it seems we’ll have to find another way out.”

“Right,” I agreed, “I don’t know we could climb out, but they got here somehow. Maybe we can get out that way.” I took the lead and heading for the darkest of the shadows guessing it was an exit of some kind. My hunch paid off and two dozen or so little gremlins fled before me into the tunnel. It sounded wet. Goodie. “Hope you don’t mind losing the suit,” I told my temporary companion. I got a very dry look in return.

Holding the glowing pentacle ahead of me, I led the way into the tunnels of Undercity. I didn’t particularly like having my back to the mobster, but there were a lot of nasty things down here and thus far, Marcone had acted in good faith; it wouldn’t look good for me to let him get killed on my watch. The ground was wet and the smell was, while not the worst I’d experienced, decidedly not the best either. Drips of water fell from the ceiling and a few made it down the back of my neck.

“Is this usual behavior?” Marcone asked, after a moment.

“Huh?”

“Guard said they were Gremlins. Is this behavior typical?”

“Oh.” I thought about it. I’d helped Ebeneezer take out a couple nests here and there when I’d been living with him. Mostly at air fields. “Depends,” I mused to give myself more time to think. “They’re attracted to technology. They like eating it.”

“I’m familiar with that.” Marcone’s voice was dry. “Tunneling?”

“I’ve heard they can and do. Especially if they’re trying to expand into a new area,” I said, waving the pentacle around, looking for a way up. If we didn’t find one soon, I was going to suggest we go back to the caved in area and wait for the construction crews. Maybe they’d throw down a ladder or something.

“Say,” I said, “Don’t you have a cell phone or something?”

“I left it in the car. No sense in ruining it.”

“Isn’t your driver going to miss you?” I asked, stopping in the middle of the tunnel. “Think he’d come in and might find a ladder or something?”

“Not for another couple hours,” Marcone said. “I’d prefer to find a way out, myself.”

I shrugged and continued down the tunnel. Why had Marcone said he’d be in here for a couple hours? That was odd. “Decided to look over my shoulder?”

“Something like that.”

Rolling my eyes I trudged onward. It looked like we were on the edges of some old sewer system. “What we need,” I said, “is some old access way.”

“There’s an alcove over there,” Marcone said, nodding with his chin.

“Good eye,” I complimented. I’d missed it on the first visual pass of the area. “Lets see...that’s not good.”

Marcone sighed very quietly. “What now?”

“Well,” I said crouching down outside the alcove. “It looks like this is what used to be the nest.”

“Used to be? The Gremlins?” Marcone asked.

I looked up and found he’d put his back to me, pointing his gun back down the tunnel. “Something bigger,” I said, prodding at the rotted out rugs and shredded mattresses that made up the bedding in the nest. Something very large. Something rattled and I froze. Behind me Marcone froze as well.

“Dresden?” Marcone asked, voice pitched very low, very calm.

“Last meal. Bones.”

“What kind of bones,” Marcone asked.

“Oh,” I said, “it looks like the human kind.” I stood up slowly, eyes scanning around the area. “I think I know why you’ve had gremlin problems.”

“Can you get rid of it?”

“I don’t even know what it is?” I replied, perhaps a bit tersely. I gripped my blasting rod tighter.

“Can you find out and then get rid of it?” Marcone snapped back.

“Probably. I-” I heard a snuffling sound and froze.

In the darkness the snuffling came closer, accompanied with a sort of grunting, like a gorilla or some other great ape. I touched Marcone’s shoulder and gestured back the way we’d come. He nodded, gun held at the ready and we headed for the entrance to the smaller tunnel. I led the way, cupping a hand over my mother’s pentacle, blocking some of the light from going down the tunnel towards the noises. Behind me, Marcone slipped. He didn’t make a sound as he went down, but there was a splash. The snuffling stopped and became a high-pitched whine, with grunting. I reached down and hauled Marcone to his feet. The grunting became louder and something large moved in the tunnel behind us. I shoved Marcone ahead of me.

“Run!”

Behind us, something bellowed and thumped rhythmically down the abandoned sewer.

“Forzare!” I yelled, blindly firing into the darkness. The whatever it was grunted as the force of the blast hit it. I didn’t wait to see what happened, I turned and followed Marcone down the tunnel. The tunnel became smaller towards the end. My shoulders brushed against the sides every so often and I had to duck as I ran. Marcone had already exited and was busy hauling cubicle parts into a pile.

“Dresden!” he called out a warning.

I dropped and spun as I did. The creature was massive and was trying to shove it’s great, hairy body through the small tunnel. I cast the force spell again, making the last ten feet or so of the tunnel collapse. The gremlins were running around and on top of one another, chittering. A few began to scrabble at the walls, trying to climb out of the pit. They had the right idea, so I raced over to help Marcone.

“It isn’t going to be enough,” I said as the rickety pile grew. Together Marcone and I shoved a large piece of concrete under one side to stabilize it more.

“I’ll pull you up,” Marcone said.

“Yeah right,” I said, giving him a look. The other man didn’t look hurt but his eyes went a bit flat.

“Dresden,”

“Force of habit,” I ground out. I looked up as we maneuvered part of a wall on top of everything. Maybe with some scrambling I could lift him high enough he could grab the edge of the hole. Maybe. There was a muffled roar and the pile of rubble and dirt I’d collapsed began to  
move. we didn’t have much time.

“Go!” I said. “I’ll help you up.” I climbed the mountain and made myself as stable as possible then made a holster with my hands. Marcone got a running start and I hauled him up with a grunt of effort. Marcone’s hands scrabbled against the side of the pit then he caught a ledge, then another. He hauled himself up and over.

I looked up, waiting for him to reappear. Behind me, the creature was breaking free and the gremlns had begun to shriek in terror. a few were trying to use me to climp up and out of the pit the way Marcone had.

“John?”

Where was he? Had he actually left me here? Why had I trusted-

Marcone’s face appeared over the side. He had a length of some kind of cabling with him. He lowered a knotted end down. “Dresden!”

I grabbed the cable and made a quick know in the end and slipped my foot into it. Then I tried to climb as Marcone pulled from above. Progress was slow, but I began to rise. Rock crumbled behind me at the creature roared, a deafening sound in close quarters. It was like a broken locomotive whistle and a gorilla’s bellow. It seemed to almost be two voices at once.

My hand gripped the edge of the pit and I began to pull myself up. Marcone appeared over the edge, holding out a hand. I looked at it for half a second then took it. Together we managed to get me out of the pit. I looked behind us. The creature was eating the gremlins.

It was about eight or nine feet tall and was covered in matted brown fur. The arms were long and muscular, the legs were also powerful but small compared to the rest of the body. It looked a bit like a gorilla. The face had almost no nose and looked skeletal. The teeth of the creature were bloodstained and very sharp. There were a lot of teeth.

“The hell is that?”

“I think it’s a Jenu.”

Marcone looked at me. He’d managed to get another gun from somewhere and was quickly loading it.

“It’s a native creature. They’re cannibalistic giants and have bad tempers.”

“Delightful. How do you kill it?”

“I say we nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”

Marcone gave me a look. “While you get on that Ripley, what can the rest of us do?”

I smirked. Hey! it wasn’t often that the quasi-bad guys got my pop culture references. “They’re nasty and tough but you can bring them down with enough firepower.”

“I’ll call in the driver. You keep it in the pit.” Marcone said as he finished reloading his weapon. He gave me an arch look. “And then we nuke it from orbit, as it were.”

I nodded one and Marcone was off. The gremlins that could escape seemed to have done so and the Jenu was busy munching on the stragglers. It tossed away the half eaten carcass and looked around.

Then it looked up.

It had small, angry eyes. It noticed me and roared again. So I did what anyone would do when faced with the better part of a ton of angry muscle. I fired on it.

“Forzare!”

The creature was blasted back into the far side of the cavern but it shook itself and began to get to its feet. Damn. I looked over my shoulder. Where was Marcone? Surely he hadn’t left me to deal with this thing?

The Jenu got to it’s feet crouched to spring. I waited for it then hit it again on the way up. It slammed back into the ground. It flailed then scrambled back to it’s feet, roaring. Two gunshots rang out, catching the creature in the upper arm and shoulder.

My ears were ringing, but I nodded at Marcone. His driver stood behind him, a tall, dark skinned man with a wide-eyed expression.

Suddenly the Jenu surged out of the pit landing on the floor opposite from us.

“What the hell!” the driver exclaimed. He began to fire wildly into the creature’s chest. The Jenu jerked and staggered back under the assault, but apparently we’d only made the creature mad. It roared again with that strange twin voice then jumped across the pit, landing on the driver.

The leap happened so fast I couldn’t get my spell off. Eight hundred pounds of furious muscle landed on the driver with a wet crunch. The scream died instantly and I was sure the man had died just as quickly, which was a mercy. The jenu’s teeth tore off a long strip of flesh from the man’s neck.

Marcone fired with a war cry of his own. The Jenu turned, bearing bloodied fangs and rushed him. Marcone dove out of the way and the creature went through the wall into the next section of offices. I hauled Marcone up and out of the way in case the creature came back the way It had come. we took refuge behind one of the security doors.

“You okay?” I screamed. All I could hear was my own heartbeat and the ringing form the gunshots.

“Been better!” Marcone screamed back.

The security doors bulged as the Jenu rushed them, successfully knocking one side loose. It pressed it’s teeth against the reinforced window, long black tongue spreading out across the surface.

“For-” Marcone’s hand on my wrist stopped me.

“Don’t blow the doors off!”

I nodded, realizing that trying to blast the creature, again, probably wouldn’t work and would only let it come at us faster. Marcone tugged on my arm and raced for the doors on the opposite side of the atrium. We shut the doors and pushed several heavy work benches in front of them then ducked behind two low walls.

“This doesn’t seem to be working!” Marcone called over. “It’s it typical to kill this things with fire?”

“I don’t want to use fire. Might make the whole building go up.”

“I appreciate the concern but I’d rather see the building and the creature go down, rather than be it’s next meal.”

I nodded and smirked. “Guard said not to do too much property damage!”

Marcone smirked back. “Too late.” He looked around then spied the windows. “Can you take that out?”

I looked at the window he was pointing at. it was perhaps ten feet behind us. “Yeah. Why?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to take the fight outside. As dangerous as the Jenu was for us, it was at least contained here.

“Take it out and hold it here!”

“What?” I asked.

“Use fire if you need to,” Marcone said. “But help me take out the window.”

The jenu had begun to try to beat down the security doors held back by the construction equipment. I looked at the shaking tools then back at Marcone.

“Trust me, Dresden!”

Trust him? He was a criminal! who had actually been fairly decent tonight, as far as criminals went. He could have left me twice already. I nodded.

I tightened the grip on my blasting rod and looked across the ruined expanse of the office. Dust from destroyed masonry drifted on the air in the space between myself Marcone. The Jenu bellowed again.

Across the way, Marcone slipped a fresh clip into his weapon, calm and collected as ever. He looked over at me as the clip slid home. I held up a hand and began counting down from five with my fingers, mouthing the words in silence. Marcone nodded, silently getting his feet under his legs, getting ready.

And the day had started out so promising, I thought.

Well, I wasn’t dead yet. “Forzare!” I screamed as we got to the count of one. The window I’d targeted blasted out of it’s frame explosively, sailing out and across the empty parking lot. Marcone followed it, leaping out of the window and racing around the side of the building.

This was, of course, when the Jenu managed to break down the door. It trampled in, chuffing and looking around for the prey that had escaped.

“Hey! Ugly!” I called, ever the master of witty repartee.

It turned and charged.

“Forzare!” The blast caught the jenu and smashed it back against the heavy construction equipment. Tools and wires and nuts and bolts scattered across the floor. The plaster broke under the impact. It got back to it’s feet.

“Oh you have to be kidding me!”

The jenu shook it’s head then glared at me and roared.

“Seriously!”

It took a step. Where the hell had Marcone gone.

“Fuego!” I called, lifting my blasting rod. “BURN!”

A blast of fire arced out and engulfed the Jenu from mid-chest upwards. The roar turned into a howl. It thrashed around and staggered into things, trying to brush the fire away. This, apparently, made it more angry. It found me and began to take lurching steps forward.

“Dresden! Down!”

I dropped and rolled to on side as Marcone opened fire with some sort of submachine gun. Murphy had something similar I think. It enabled a person to unleash a whole lot of pain in a short time. The jenu’s body jerked and danced as the hail of bullets hit. Finally it slumped to the ground, still on fire.

“Cover me!” I yelled, racing for the fire extinguisher the construction crews had had on hand. I turned the spray on the body. The flames finally went out and I sprayed some of the broken bits of masonry that had caught fire as well. Finally I went back over to the window and slumped down on the ground, my rod across my lap.

Marcone sat down beside me. “Well,” he said, “that was a hell of a thing.”

I chuckled, suddenly struck funny. It was probably the adrenaline. “Yeah.”

“It’s dead?”

“Yep. Should turn into goo and disappear by sunrise.”

Marcone grunted and shifted the gun. I looked up. Marcone was looking at the body. he shook his head and met my eyes. He held out a hand. “Harry.”

I probably wasn’t a good idea but I shook the man’s hand. “John.”

“I’m sure Guard will arrange payment when she returns from Monoc.”

I nodded and got to my feet, body protesting. I limped back to my car. I sat in the beetle’s driver side seat and looked back at the building thinking on the surprising evening.

So often it was easy to think of Marcone as nothing but scum. Yes, the man was a tiger. You didn’t blame the tiger for being what it was though, it was simply the nature of the beast. Or so I’d thought. But Marcone was a human, not some kind of changeless fae or some other creature of the Nevernever. Maybe I was too used to dealing with creatures that I’d forgotten, or maybe this side didn’t come out so often. It was something to think on at least. I started up the car, and headed home.


End file.
